Liu Li-Na 
                                                                                    Student ID :s06567
                                                                                  Law School 
 
                                                 Research Paper Superviser : Dr. Sekou Conde
                                                 Minzhu University of China
                                                                                 2006-2007 Academic year
Abstract: As the world becomes ever more interconnected, the impact of epidemic diseases has increased dramatically. Therefore, epidemic diseases are discussed as one of main topics in 2006 in the G8 summit. Epidemic diseases present a major threat to lives and economies in an increasingly globalize world. In this paper, the consequences of epidemic diseases are put forward and analyzed and there are a few reasons for epidemic diseases. In the end, the solutions which are more important when epidemic diseases outbreak occurrences were recommended. Therefore, the paper has certain realistic significance.
 
Key words: epidemic; disease; life; economy
 
Introduction
The Group of Eight (G8) is an international forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The G8 meetings are periodically intended to address international economic and monetary concerns, but now the meeting contents are very more extensive.
Epidemic diseases present a major threat to lives and economies in an increasingly globalized world and this is one of the contents in the summit which focus on global health problems in St. Petersburg, Russia on 15-17 July 2006. The G8 leaders have long recognized that AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases slow economic development, perpetuate poverty, and threaten security in large parts of the world. They point that existing and emerging disease threats are tackled at the very highest level.
An epidemic is an occurrence of cases of a disease in excess of usual expectations for a particular population. Epidemics are commonly thought to involve outbreaks of acute infectious disease, such as measles, polio, or streptococcal sore throat. More recently, other types of health-related events such as homicide, drownings, and even hysteria have been considered to occur as “epidemics.”
The impact of epidemics diseases has increased dramatically as the world becomes  more interconnected. Now Airlines can carry 1.6 billion passengers every year. Trade, commerce and financial markets are increasingly interrelated. The SARS outbreak of 2003 vividly demonstrated how much the world has changed in terms of its vulnerability to economic and social disruptions when disease outbreaks occur. When it happens, the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century could have potentially cause consequences for human life, health, and the world economy.
The consequences of epidemic diseases to Life
Epidemic diseases can kill huge numbers of people in many countries when disease outbreaks occur. Because the world becomes more interconnected and disease transmission are easier, people who died for epidemic diseases are more increasing. Through the following statistics, we can see that these phenomena happened in history[1]
1793 USA, Philadelphia: Yellow fever, 4000 People died
1832 July - August USA, New York City: Cholera Epidemic, 3,000 people died
1832 October USA, New Orleans: Cholera Epidemic, 4,340 people died
1848 USA, New York City: Cholera Epidemic, more than 5,000 people died
1853 USA, New Orleans: Yellow fever, 7,790 people died
1867 USA, New Orleans: Yellow fever, 3,093 people died
1878 USA, southern States / lower Mississippi Valley: Yellow Fever, 13,000 people died
1916 USA: worst polio epidemic (infantile paralysis), 27,363 reported cases, over 7,000 died
1918 March - November USA, worst single U.S. epidemic, influenca, over 500,000 people died
1918, worldwide: Spanish flu epidemic, nearly 22 million people died throughout the world, 12, 5 million in India alone.
1920, India: plague, killing at least two million people
1949 USA polio outbreak, 42,173 cases and 7,000 people died
1994 September 24th. India, western city of Surat: outbreak of pneumonic plague, at least 100 people died.
In January 2004, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus of the H5N1 subtype was first confirmed in poultry and humans in Thailand. Control measures were implemented. Poultry populations in 1,417 villages in 60 of 76 provinces were affected in 2004. A total of 83% of infected flocks confirmed by laboratories were backyard chickens (56%) or ducks (27%). Outbreaks were concentrated in the Central, the southern part of the Northern, and Eastern Regions of Thailand, which are wetlands, water reservoirs, and dense poultry areas. More than 62 million birds were either killed by HPAI viruses or culled. H5N1 virus from poultry caused 17 human cases and 12 deaths in Thailand; a number of domestic cats, captive tigers, and leopards also died of the H5N1 virus. In 2005, the epidemic is ongoing in Thailand.[2]
In early 2004, lack of information and communication with regard to HPAI caused the public to lose confidence in poultry products. The decrease in domestic consumption and bans on Thai poultry products by importing countries damaged the poultry industry. In addition, H5N1 virus from poultry caused 17 human cases with 12 deaths in 12 province.
Economies
Large-scale disease outbreak brings the mankind a huge pain. It not only kills millions of people’s life but also results in serious destruction of the social economy.
Today, the relevant circumstance research about AIDS should be clearer than before. The disease of AIDS causes population a great deal of death and is like the flu in 1918, which infected the people with work age. Some scholars imitated the disease outbreak influence on economy and make a system to find the difference between disease happening and no occurrence in Africa. They find that the GDP scale will descend 15~25 percentage points, and person income highly will descend l 0 percentage point .The research discovers the disease of AIDS influence on human capital by Three ways to hinder the economic growth. Above all, it causes the most productive young people died in the society. Secondly, it breaks the knowledge transmission in the family by resulting in the death of the young parents and AIDS reduce an educational opportunity to a kid for the lower family income. The kid is also infected very probably in the meantime and this causes a lower investment to human capital. Last but not least, the depravation of education condition will influence on the next generation which can’t acquire knowledge from the family. The increasing uneducated people can cause social unstability.[3]
Possibility we already had underestimated negative influence of SARS to economy, and as time went on, the negative influence were seen .The economy suffered more larger impacts than Asian financial crisis in 1997 in our country probably. There were the following aspects. Firstly, the tour industry subjected from the SARS disease, and then a trade, an investment and so on were effected after this. Secondly, SARS was changing the lifestyle of the residents, and tour, recreation and amusement etc. which were quickly increasing service type consumption in old years which were suffering heavy stroke. Thirdly, because of SARS influence, the rate of attendance of business enterprises had already appeared to descend, and it was inevitable that the manufacturers and the investors confidence would descend. The fourth, the SARS make business enterprises require lower income and profit, and even some business enterprises can’t support them and at last bankrupt. The fifth, though the SARS can get a control very quickly, the impact on economy can't remove very quickly. There are two reasons for this problem. On one hand, because of effect of inertial cancellation of the bad news needs a long time. On the other hand, it takes a long time to start the plan which has stopped. Scholars affirm that the impact of the SARS on economy will not disappear very quickly.
 
Spread of epidemic diseases
Disease and epidemics occur as a result of the interaction of three factors, agent, host, and environment. Agents cause the disease, hosts are susceptible to it, and environmental conditions permit host exposure to the agent. An understanding of the interaction between agent, host, and environment is crucial for the selection of the best approach to prevent or control the continuing spread of an epidemic.
For infectious diseases, epidemics can occur when large numbers of susceptible persons are exposed to infectious agents in settings that permit the spread of the agent. Spread of an infectious disease depends primarily on the chain of transmission of an agent: a source of the agent, a route of exit from the host, a suitable mode of transmission between the susceptible host and the source, and a route of entry into another susceptible host. Modes of spread may involve direct physical contact between the infected host and the new host, or airborne spread, such as coughing or sneezing. Indirect transmission takes place through vehicles such as contaminated water, food, or intravenous fluids; inanimate objects such as bedding, clothes, or surgical instruments; or a biological vector such as a mosquito or flea.
There are three main patterns of epidemic, determined by the mode of transmission of the microorganism. Firstly, the explosive epidemic. This is characterized by the occurrence of many cases in a short period; there is a sharp rise and fall in the number of infected persons, since the usual cause of such an event is a common source of infection. This type of epidemic is thus also frequently termed a common source epidemic or a point source epidemic. This pattern of infection often occurs when water or food becomes contaminated, although [...]

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